Gainesville, Texas, header JR Caldwell and Justin, Texas, heeler Justin Copp won $151,200 in the #12.5 Riata Championship at the Lazy E Arena in Guthrie, Oklahoma, with 29.21 seconds on four head aboard SF Mr Bonnie Bay and Little Commander.
They finished 1.22 seconds ahead of Tarrant Stewart and Rhett Nelson.
It’s Caldwell’s second straight Riata title. He and Mollie Devereaux won the #8.5 Championship at the 2025 Riata Championships, roping four head in 41.57 seconds for $145,700, with Caldwell on Metallic To A Te by Metallic Gray.
SF Mr Bonnie Bay is by Four Bonnie Bay out of HR Annie Gotter Gun by Pepto Bro CD. Michael K. or Kim St. Clair bred him, and Caldwell owns him. Little Commander is by Commanders Qualifier—not a Riata stallion, but proxied in through Riata colts the Copps own.
The Head Horse
Caldwell spent about 15 years away from roping before coming back four years ago.
“I was off about 15 years,” Caldwell said. “I started back about four years ago, bought just a regular AQHA horse first. And then I seen the Riata’s here and I’m like, I got, get me one. So I bought him out of a sale and brought him along and I thought he was doing really good. I brought him here his first time as a four-year-old, and I’m like, uh-oh. I haven’t done enough work on him. So I worked on him some more, brought him back last year. He did pretty good and he’s just getting better and better as he gets older.”
He said the game had moved on while he was gone.
“You know, he’s a real big, powerful horse, and I’d never been to the Riata the first year. So when I come here, it was like, I thought I had a nice four-year-old, and being away from the game for 15 years, it’s changed a lot. And I come back and I say, well, these guys are riding stallions and really nice horses. Like, I got to make, he’s got to grow up and be better, you know? And we kind of taken our time with him and letting him just develop at his pace, you know … and his brain kind of catch up with him, and he’s getting better and better all the time.”
The Heel Horse
Copp has had Little Commander since the horse was a yearling. He got him into the Riata as a proxy horse through the colts his wife, Kaitlin, raises.
“He’s 17 now,” Copp explained. “And we proxied him in, so I told my wife, I guess I’ll have to quit griping about the colts at home … because I think they paid for theirself now. He’s been good for a long time. I started pro rodeoing on him when he was 3 years old, so he’s been doing it for a while.”
The Copps’ colts at home include an SJR Metallic Oak colt and two by Slick By Design, one a yearling that recently had colic surgery.
Kaitlin grew up around stallions, and her mother has gone deep on Riata-eligible colts.
“So when Riata first came about, she came to me really excited because she grew up with studs and they raised halter horses and had really big studs and everything, so she was excited about it,” Copp said. “And her mom got really excited about it. I bet her mom has 15 Riata colts and they haven’t sold anything. They’ve got all the way to two- or three-year-olds. She may have eight this next year hit the ground, but long story short, just the money and everything behind it. Caitlin loves the horse aspect of it and being able to raise colts. So that’s been fun for her to relive that stuff and looks like it’s working out pretty good.”
The Short Round
Caldwell said he rode for the catch.
“You know, I knew I got a really good heeler behind me … and it’s like, just go do my job, you know?” Caldwell said. “And I seen a steer go about four ahead of him that looked like it was pretty soft. So I thought, well, we’re going to have a good soft one here, it looked like. And he broke and kind of come my way and I got him and I didn’t give him a very good handle and he cleaned it up for me.”
Copp had no complaints about the handle.
“Perfect to me. When it pays that much, it looks great. Pulled him right in my loop, my opinion,” Copp laughed.
Racehorses and Rope Horses
Caldwell has trained racehorses for about 40 years and said the gate work carries over to the box.
“Well, it’s actually ’cause we, them racehorses, we got to stand them in the gates, so they’ll sit there quiet and leave the gates good. And so the head horses, a lot. You got to score them a lot and get them to stand there and leave when you want them to leave. So there’s a lot of similarities, but the high-powered, the high-strung horses, I’m kind of used to, been running my whole life, so it helps me, I guess,” Caldwell said.
“I have very good clients that let me manage both of them, and I spent 40 years chasing them racehorses and doing it, and I went away for 15 years and all that, and it’s like I’m getting older, and I actually got back to roping just to get my body in shape and do more. And it’s a passion. We all love it and we’re all obsessed with it. So it just keeps growing for me.”
He said he ropes as much as he can.
“I would rope sometimes twice a day. Like, I just, I rope all I can just to get better, you know, and whatever I can do to be better, if I have to go take a lesson, if I have to go ride better horses, whatever I have to do. I’m going to be better.”
“I like to win. I like to go for the big money, and Vegas was obviously one of them, and I’m gonna do my best to try to ride the best horses I can, and when there’s a roping like this that pays like this, I’m gonna have me a horse so I can go compete and try to go for it.”
Rank Racks
Copp builds Rank Racks and has run a booth at the Riata for at least three years. He said he doesn’t practice.
“I rope zero, and I build Rank Racks seven days a week if I’m home, ’cause I build them all myself, and I can’t keep up. Which is a good thing, but we don’t practice at all. I rope at the ropings, and so that’s about that,” Copp said.
“And anything, honestly, Denny Gentry does, I want to be a part of, because that’s what’s helped build my business, following the best ropers in the world around. So with the best ropers that want to get better, so that works hand in hand for my business.”
Since High School
Caldwell wanted to rope as a kid, but his father steered him to racehorses.
“I’ve always loved, I’ve always wanted to do it since I was in high school, but my dad kind of led me to do the racehorses and wasn’t a roper, so I never had a chance. I’ve always had that passion since I was, like, a young kid, but never really had the opportunity. So I moved to Texas in 2000 and had an opportunity to rope a little bit and I roped a lot down in South Texas,” Caldwell said.
He dedicated the win to a friend.
“I want to send this out to a good friend of mine, Wesley Glover, that passed away this last weekend. He meant a lot to me and I think he’s an inspiration to all team ropers and people that are just living.”
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